Ghosal main attraction in Kolkata squash meet

Kolkata, Nov 5 (IANS) Top-ranked Indian squash player Saurav Ghosal will be the main attraction in the $30,000 PSA tournament, the Kolkata International, starting from Wednesday at the Calcutta Racket Club here.

The event is a part of the 225th anniversary celebrations of the club.

The draw features several top players of the world including Egyptian pair of world No. 27 Zahed Salem, world No. 34 Youssef Soliman, Todd Harrity (world No. 48) of the USA and Indians Harinder Pal Sandhu (world No. 59) and Ramit Tandon (world No. 68).

A total of 24 players will take part in the five-day tourney. The final will be held on November 11.

Ghosal, the defending champion of the meet which was last held in 2015, is the top seed owing to his best-ever ranking of 11.

The 32-year-old beat former World No.1 Marwan ElShorbagy in the final three years back here.

Ghosal said he will skip the senior national championship in New Delhi this time owing to an "extremely busy" international season, which included the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games.

Ghosal has played in every national championship since he was 17.

"After this tournament, there is a big event in Hong Kong at the end of this month and then there is another one in Egypt from 3rd to 9th December. So starting with the Asian Games in August, I will end up playing nine events in about four months which is a lot," Ghosal said here.

"The next big event starting January on the PSA circuit is at Mumbai from 8th. It's a USD 70,000 event. So I just feel that this is an objective decision rather than an emotional one," he added.

Ghosal has played 13 tournaments on the Professional Squash Association tour apart from the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games. He had won the Indian Open in February.

The last tournament Ghosal played in was the Qatar Classic last week, where he lost in the third round.